Levi Hunt was riding the escalator down to the Civic Center BART platform Tuesday morning when he was approached by a man who appeared to be homeless. The man, who had sickly gray eyes and slurred speech, asked Hunt for change.
“I’m texting my daughter as I’m coming off the escalator, so I have my wallet and my phone out, and he walks right up to the wallet,” said Hunt, 35. “I didn’t know how to respond. So I just said nothing and walked away.”
Hunt, who lives in Lower Nob Hill, then stood on the platform and waited for the approaching train to Millbrae, where he works as a comic book dealer.
The man who’d approached him slumped over on the platform. Hunt said his appearance and behavior appeared to indicate opioid impairment.
Moments later, as the train arrived at high speed, Hunt watched in horror as the man leaped to his death in front of the Millbrae-bound train.
He has since been identified as Justin Angelo Thompson, 34, who has no listed residency, according to the chief medical examiner’s office.
Hunt described the incident as “fentanyl-assisted suicide.”
“He does a beeline for the train as it approaches the track. Without a second, he jumps down in front of it. There was no time delay. It approached, he shuffled, ran, and jumped. It was like a chainsaw going through butter,” Hunt said. “There was no resistance.”
Hunt believes he was the only witness. He said other commuters were distracted, “their faces so close to their phones that they’re unaware of even each other.”
When the train came to a stop, Hunt ran to alert station staff but found no BART employees at the kiosk.
A custodian pointed out an emergency call box that connected Hunt to BART dispatch. He used it to report what he had seen before leaving to catch a train at Powell Street station.
“It’s Tuesday morning. Usually, there’s BART police down in Civic Center. Usually, there’s two or three BART employees or conductors at the windows, but it was just an oddball Tuesday-morning ghost town,” Hunt said. “There’s like, not a lot of riders, not a lot of commotion. It was just very ominous.”
BART officials shut down the Civic Center station following the incident, rerouting trains and announcing a “major medical emergency.” Service resumed approximately 25 minutes later, but systemwide delays remained for hours.
BART officials had no update on the incident Wednesday.
Hunt expressed concern about drug use, dealing, and homelessness in his Lower Nob Hill neighborhood, which he says has deteriorated since 2020.
“If you go to the TL, to Lower Nob Hill and now, spilling out into the Mission, it’s this fentanyl crisis that we have to deal with, these people who are halfway dead, they’re not coherent, and they’re physically disabled from this drug addiction.
“I don’t feel that gentleman had to die,” Hunt added. “The fentanyl took him out. It wasn’t right.”
Thompson’s death comes months after another fatal incident on BART tracks. In July, hotel worker Corazon Dandan was pushed onto the track at Powell Street station by a homeless man as she made her way home from work, according to court documents and prosecutors.
Nanci Nishimura, an attorney with Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy who is representing the Dandan family in a lawsuit against the transit operator, questioned BART’s safety measures in light of Tuesday’s incident.
“Had BART had partitions up, no one could get over that,” Nishimura said, referring to platform screen doors used at airports and transit systems worldwide.
Nishimura also raised concerns about the apparent lack of personnel or police present during Tuesday’s incident.
“The question is, were there any BART personnel or BART police in the vicinity who could have prevented this person from basically committing suicide?” Nishimura asked.
If you or somebody you know is having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 to reach the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Or go here for more San Francisco resources.